


made with love

by rowena24



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: AshEijiSecretSanta2020, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon, they're together in japan and stupidly in love your honor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:48:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28497816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rowena24/pseuds/rowena24
Summary: Ash tries to surprise Eiji with a pancake breakfast. Things...do not go according to plan.For the 2020 Secret Santa exchange!
Relationships: Ash Lynx/Okumura Eiji
Comments: 6
Kudos: 76





	made with love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RottenSeoul](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RottenSeoul/gifts).



> well.....it's still january 1st in some timezones so this isn't TECHNICALLY late. kassidy, i hope this satisfies the domestic fluff you were looking for! big xoxo to my dear friend rimi for putting this exchange together.
> 
> cw for some brief mentions of eiji's father being hospitalized for (what i headcanon ambiguously) as a chronic illness that flares up semi-regularly. he's ok for the most part tho! nothing dark in this fic, just love light and healing <3

There have been a number of moments in Ash’s life where he thought, with sickeningly-sure certainty, that he had finally run the course of his golden-boy luck. Surely, physics and biology and pure common sense were going to catch up with him, and he would finally find the limit to the superhuman feats he could pull. It would happen in a duel on elevated train tracks, or blind and wheelchair-bound in a banquet hall, or locked in an ultra-high security experimental facility. It would be a flashy end to his nine lives.

He never, not even for a second, contemplated that he would meet his match with a bowl of pancake batter.

“Sing,” he groaned, to the very unimpressed face staring back from his phone screen, propped up on the counter. “You’ve gotta help me. I’m in too deep to pull back before Eiji gets home.” By which he meant, it already looked like a flour bomb went off in their precious kitchen, and there was literally no way to get it back to a non-suspicious level of cleanliness in time. So he really needed some positive returns to show for it.

“I know you have an actual genius IQ. You can use it to read the back of the box without me holding your hand,” Sing said drily, looking somehow even more unimpressed. Ash briefly longed for the days when the little punk was scared shitless of him. Now he just got sass over FaceTime in his retirement.

“Har dee har har, we don’t have any boxed mix. Eiji always makes them from scratch,” Ash shot back in what was definitely not a whine.

Sing raised his eyebrows. “Dude, why the hell would you try to cook anything that has more than two steps? You know that’s not gonna end well.”

“I’ve watched him do it a hundred times! It didn’t look that hard. And he’s been so stressed with work and his dad and I….just wanted to do something nice.”

Sing’s expression finally softened at that. “Okay, okay. Did you at least Google a recipe instead, then?”

“....yes,” he lied through his teeth, surreptitiously leaning forward to open the Internet while still remaining on the call with Sing, and tapping the first result he found.

“Bullshit. How did you ever feed yourself without Eiji around?”

“I’m doing it now, okay! Eiji always eyeballs it until it ‘looks right,’ and like I said, I’ve watched him do it enough.” He knew getting defensive with Sing was only going to be counterproductive, but sue him. He had a very stressful morning.

“Yeah, cuz Eiji knows how to cook and knows the ratios of ingredients that make it ‘look right.’ Contrary to popular belief, you’re not naturally gifted at everything under the sun.”  
Ash groaned. Yeah, after all these years, cooking ended up being his fatal flaw. Turned out all Arthur needed to do was challenge him on MasterChef or something--

“Hey, earth to Ash. I can see you catastrophizing from here. Pull yourself together and start reading me the recipe.”

“Catastrophizing? Someone’s been hitting the SAT books we sent after all,” Ash teased, shaking himself out of his admitted pancake spiral. Sing’s blush was evident even through the pixellated phone screen.

“Of--of course. Nadia would have my head otherwise, geez,” he grumbled. “Anyway! Recipe! Hurry up.”

“Sure thing, boss,” he drawled. Sing just rolled his eyes. God, was Ash getting old. He tabbed back over to the recipe screen. “Okay, one and a half cups flour, three and a half teaspoons baking powder--wait, I pulled out baking soda, that’s the same thing, right?”

The door slammed, faintly audible from across the apartment. “Tadaima!”

“That’s it, I’m leaving you to the wolves for that. You deserve it,” Sing hissed. The next thing he knew, Ash was staring at the “Call Ended” screen. Shit. He was so screwed.

“Ash? Did you step out?” Eiji’s voice was getting closer. Ash closed his eyes. He was out of time and shit out of luck. Might as well go and face the music.

“O-okaeri….” he stuck his head through the kitchen doorway and gave a nervous little finger-wave. 

Eiji was in the hallway, his head poked into their bedroom, perhaps (fairly) expecting him to still be asleep. He turned at the sound of his voice, though, and his big brown eyes lit up. It made Ash feel all….mushy, even after all this time. Even when he knew those eyes were going to crease into a scowl as soon as he saw the mess behind him.

“Ash! Aren’t you up….early,” Eiji audibly paused for a second to look him up and down. 

Ash felt his cheeks heat up as he realized what he must look like. He hadn’t bothered to get dressed before embarking on his pancake mission, so he was still in boxers, and a random t-shirt he had grabbed off the pile. With growing horror, he realized it was one of Eiji’s. Specifically, a Nori Nori shirt that he previously had sworn up and down was the bane of his existence. Eiji’s smile shifted to something devious as he leaned up to kiss his cheek, then threaded his fingers through his hair. He tugged lightly, then grabbed the clip out, letting his hair tumble down in a golden wave.

“Is this Nahoko’s?” Eiji murmured against his lips.

And sure enough, when Ash looked down, Eiji was holding a sparkly neon pink claw hair clip that definitely originally belonged to his sister. Shit. He really had just been grabbing things in the dark. It wasn’t his fault it was the dead of winter and the sun didn’t rise till seven! Or that Nahoko left accessories and makeup all over their apartment whenever she came over to visit. Really, it was partially her fault for leaving it here in the first place….

“I needed to keep my hair from getting in the food,” Ash mumbled back, then tried to distract Eiji with a proper kiss on the mouth. It worked for all of five seconds, before Eiji leaned back and asked, round-eyed,

“Food?”

Ash cringed and stepped back, allowing Eiji to actually enter the kitchen. He took one look, catalogued the flour covering the counter, the bowl of inedible gloop, and the much too big pan Ash had gotten out on the stove, and burst out laughing.

If it was anyone else, or if Ash was a few years younger and a few dozen therapy sessions less secure, this reaction might have caused him to snap and raise his hackles. But this was his Eiji, who didn’t have a mean bone in his body. And as embarrassed as Ash was, he could admit that the whole situation was pretty ridiculous. So he laughed along too.

“Sweetheart, what is all this?” Eiji asked, once they had both settled down a little.

“Well, it was supposed to be a nice breakfast waiting for you when you got back from the hospital, which--how is your dad doing, by the way?”

“Eh, a lot of the same. They want to keep watching his blood pressure, but he will probably be cleared to go home tomorrow.” The corner of his mouth twisted with the smallest bit of tension. Ash reached out to smooth it away. Eiji caught his hand and laced their fingers together, and it made Ash break out what he knew was his dopiest, only-Eiji-makes-me-this-way grin.

“I am fine, my darling Ash. My father is holding up okay. You didn’t have to go through all this trouble.” Eiji started weaving the fingers of his other hand through his hair again, idly playing with the longest strands.

Ash shrugged. “I wanted to. I wanted to help. Take care of you, for once.”

Eiji fully melted against him, but didn’t say anything else for a long moment, just hummed a little. Ash knew that he knew how hard it still was for him to admit to soft things like that. Desires. It got a little easier every time Eiji looked at him like that, though. Like he was proud, no matter how small the victory.

“I love you,” Eiji said. Like it was simple. And hell, maybe standing in their Tokyo apartment, holding each other at nine on a Saturday morning in December, it was.

Ash kissed him, quick and sweet. It wasn’t an answer in words, but it was enough.

“But you are cleaning this up, and then I am going to teach you how to do this correctly. No arguments.”

Ash gave an exaggerated sigh into Eiji’s neck, but really, he couldn’t think of anything that sounded sweeter.

“Yes, nii--”

Eiji cut him off with a swat to the arm. “You annoying little--! You would think that joke would stop after being together this long, but no. My great comedian boyfriend will beat that horse dead instead.”

“It’s ‘beat a dead horse,’ not--”

“Start cleaning, Professor Callenreese of Semantics.” He shoved the tube of wet wipes into his hands.

Once everything was wiped down, and the unfortunate first attempt at batter flushed down the toilet, Eiji grabbed a new bowl and some rarely used measuring cups, and began softly narrating the order of ingredients step-by-step. Ash couldn’t help but plaster himself against Eiji’s back, wrapping his arms around his waist, and tucking his chin over his shoulder to watch. Leaving Eiji’s arms free, of course. It really wasn’t that difficult, with Eiji calmly explaining each step. He sighed, and nuzzled Eiji’s neck. Pancakes or no, he was about as warm and content as could be.

“Now, I’m glad I stopped you before you even got to the stove, because I know you would have forgotten to grease this too-big skillet, and you would be scrubbing it for hours--Ash? You still listening, you big lazy cat?”

“Mm. Always.”

**Author's Note:**

> the recipe that was indeed the first result on google when i searched it: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/21014/good-old-fashioned-pancakes/ (it honestly looks pretty good, i might try to make it some time)
> 
> thanks for reading, and feel free to chat w me on tumblr @be-papas


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